Yakitate!! Japan (Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan) is a manga series written and illustrated by Takashi Hashiguchi. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday by Shogakukan from December 2001 to January 2007, with a total of 26 volumes. In 2004, it won the 49th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shonen category.

After achieving huge success in Japan, Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan was officially released in English by Viz Media in 2005. The anime adaptation series by Sunrise was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 2004 to March 2006 and ran for 69 episodes. In North America, Nozomi Entertainment licensed the anime series for English release in 2014.

Besides from anime adaptation, a video game inspired by Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan was published by Bandai and released for Nintendo DS on January 2006.

The protagonist Kazuma Azuma has just graduated from middle school at the beginning of Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan. He was eating breakfast with his family and Kazuma’s grandfather said the bread Kazuma made was delicious. It was Kazuma’s newest creation – bread number 55.

Growing up, Kazuma has made a lot of bread for his family as a way to practice and named them Ja-pan, along with a number. Everyone in his family had their own favorite. For Kazuma’s mother, it was Ja-pan number 49, but for his big sister Inaho Azuma, she preferred Ja-pan number 43.

The title of Freshly Baked!! Ja-pan is a play on words. “Yakitate” means “Freshly Baked”, but “Ja-pan” is both a reference to the country of Japan and also, “pan” means “bread” in Japanese.

Kazuma bid farewell to his family and headed to Tokyo to work at the famous bread-making chain Pantasia. His grandmother gave him a charm for good luck and his big sister threaten to beat him if Kazuma would ever give up halfway.

The clock went back exactly 10 years, when Kazuma was only 6 years old. His family has always eaten a traditional Japanese breakfast with rice, miso soup and natto. Inaho asked that they try to eat bread once in a while. But Kazuma’s grandfather rejected right away, saying that Inaho couldn’t ask a rice farmer to have bread for breakfast. “Western influence is rotting your brain”, he said. Even Kazuma agreed with their grandfather and stated that he hated the dried out bread and would prefer rice.

Inaho got angry and took Kazuma to a newly opened bakery in town called “St. Pierre”. Inside, Kazuma saw for the first time in his life that bread could be made into many different shapes and sizes. It was like a toy store for Kazuma, except he could eat all of them.

The owner was a really nice man, he came out to welcome Kazuma and Inaho. Inaho then bought a loaf of bread and slapped it into Kazuma’s face. The bread was eaten at an incredible speed!

“That was great”, Kazuma finished the bread in one go and had a satisfied grin on his face. Kazuma asked the owner how could he made such wonderful bread. The owner took Kazuma into the kitchen and showed Kazuma how to make the dough. The owner patiently explained the process to Kazuma and told Kazuma his dream of creating a bread that represent Japan – “Ja-pan”.

In this world, a countries best bread is named after itself, like French bread, English bread or German bread. To achieve his dream, the owner would have to close down his store and go to Tokyo. The people in the countryside wouldn’t eat much bread as they preferred rice. Such was their way of life.

Kazuma wanted to help the nice owner so he promised that he would get his grandfather to like bread. After Kazuma ran home, the owner looked at the dough Kazuma has kneaded earlier and noticed something unusual.

Back at home, Kazuma and Inaho asked to make breakfast and they made toast instead of rice. Their grandfather tried to eat it with natto and miso soup but they didn’t go together at all. Their grandfather said that he would never accept any bread that didn’t go well with natto and miso soup. Their grandfather was a harsh man that lived through the war. He used to eat only stale bread and biscuit that was distributed to citizens and would always dream to fill his belly with rice again. That was why he was so strongly against the idea of bread.

The owner and Kazuma decided to try creating a bread that would taste delicious with natto and miso soup. When making the dough, they put in a secret ingredient to replace milk.

Seeing how hard Kazuma has tried, his grandfather agreed to try bread one more time. It was delicious and paired well with natto and miso soup. “It was good, right?”, Kazuma happily said. “That’s because I made it especially for you, grandpa!”

Kazuma went to tell the owner the good news and they talked for a while. The owner revealed the secret ingredient that they used instead of milk. It was soy milk. Natto and miso soup were also made from soy bean. That was why the bread made with soy milk went together so well with natto and miso soup.

The owner also told Kazuma something that he has noticed. “You have solar hands”, the owner said.

Kazuma’s special warm hands were really rare amongst bakers all around the world. Thanks to that, the fermentation speed of Kazuma’s bread was faster than normal and would taste more delicious. The owner decided to move to Tokyo to chase after his dream and urged Kazuma to come find him in Tokyo if Kazuma would aim to become a baker in the future.

Back to the present, Kazuma has arrived in Tokyo and officially took the first step on his quest of creating “Ja-pan”. He stepped inside Pantasia and energetically introduced himself.

However, a man with a strict attitude appeared and told Kazuma that his score has been reduced by 5 points. It turned out that Kazuma hasn’t got the job yet, he was only one of many applicants competing for the chance to work at Pantasia. And Kazuma was off to a rocky start!